Summary

The author, Remington Write, discusses the misalignment between their personal writing goals and the common advice given to writers on Medium, emphasizing the joy of writing for the love of the craft rather than solely for financial gain.

Abstract

Remington Write reflects on the prevalent advice within the Medium writing community, which often focuses on curation, SEO, and monetization strategies. Despite the potential financial benefits, Write prioritizes the intrinsic satisfaction derived from writing, or "the buzz," over the pursuit of monetary success. They acknowledge the challenges of financial pressures but assert that their passion for writing and the freedom to explore diverse topics take precedence. Write has built a dedicated readership and earns a modest income through consistent writing and promotion, without conforming to popular trends or relying on Medium's curation system. The author's success is measured by the engagement and support of their audience rather than by financial metrics.

Opinions

Curation on Medium is not seen as a significant factor in the author's writing success in terms of views, claps, or earnings.
The author values creative freedom and personal expression over writing content that is designed to sell or adhere to trends.
Remington Write believes that success in writing should be measured by reader engagement and the personal fulfillment of the writer, rather than financial gain.
The advice commonly given to writers on Medium, such as focusing on SEO and writing advice articles, is viewed with skepticism by the author.
Despite not prioritizing monetization, the author has managed to build a substantial readership and earns enough to cover their weekly subscription rate on Medium.
The author expresses gratitude for their readers and the joy that comes from the occasional curation of their work, while also emphasizing that curation does not equate to financial success.

The Big Bad Scary Awful Curation Jail

Who cares?

My Animal Totem when it comes to caring about curation / Photo Credit — Jonny H. Walrus / Pxhere

There are many variables at play when it comes to getting eyes on our writing here on Medium and elsewhere in the big, wide world. And a surprising number of writers seem to be cranking out loads of helpful advice on how to do that more effectively. Thanks, guys.

I’ve been writing for real here since December 2018 and in that time here are just a few of the “helpful” topics covered in about ten hundred thousand and twelve articles which I’ve skim-read:

Curation is necessary to make money on Medium (not so far).
Curation jail is The End of Your Career on Medium (shrug).
Learn SEO, breathe SEO, become SEO (low odds).
349 tips on writing writing advice for writers because that’s what really takes off on this platform (hey, whatever floats your boat).
Provide value for your readers, give them something they can use (because relating, laughing, being engaged are really so 20th century).
If you can’t come up with helpful writing tips, bare your soul and bleed all over the screen (Ewwww).
Use a headline analyzer to come up with really attention-getting headlines (whatever).

And on and on it goes.

I think we may be at cross-purposes, the helpful ones and me. To many many people in this world success is measured with one benchmark: how much money did it/you make? And I suppose that if that’s what you’re after, well then, the above list may be exactly what you’re looking for. Have at it, my friends.

With Sallie Mae still sitting by my door with her hand out every month, making a killing here on Medium would be a wonderful thing. No arguing with that.

With unemployment benefits whittling down at an alarming pace, again, pulling in four figures a month here would allow me to worry about something else at 3 am when I can’t sleep.

With zero retirement savings and a teensy weensy 403(b) account I’m afraid to look at these days, yes, I’m clearly a damned fool not to be signing up for every How-To course, racing to publish my novella on Amazon, and going back to re-read every last one of those ten hundred thousand and twelve super helpful articles. Not to mention how dumb I am to not be leaning in to master marketing techniques and working a lot harder to monetize the fuck out of everything I breathe, say, or do.

What’s the matter with me, anyway? Am I like not an American here?

Maybe not

I’m not in it for the money, I’m in it for the buzz. Something mysterious and unexplainable happens when I am lost in the work.

Why Do You Write?

I’m in it for the buzz

medium.com

I have a solid daily structure and find myself coming up with entire paragraphs just before falling asleep (and then having to get up and write them down or risk losing them).

The miracle of Medium is that I get to follow any trail that interests me. And, it turns out that after decades of writing in isolation with nothing but piles of rejection emails to reward my obsessive compulsion, I’ve developed a strong voice. I have opinions and slants and observations and philosophies and ideas and rants and piles of praise and story plots and characters that I’m only just beginning to mine. Baby, I’ve hit the motherlode and I could not give one shit less if I never get curated again (boy, am I asking for it here, huh?).

For one thing, I have yet to see curation really make that much of a difference in views, claps, or money.

And that’s almost certainly because I just can’t be bothered to write the stuff that “sells”, the stuff readers supposedly want. And I’m ok with that. I’m not particularly discouraged. Over the course of 15 months, I’ve incrementally built a readership in excess of 1500 and by writing, publishing, and promoting daily on the various social media bullhorns, I earn a bit more than my weekly subscription rate daily.

I’ve got 46 subscribers to my free weekly newsletter (which my friend, Neil, has asked how I can set up for him to pay for, bless his generous and steadfast heart). Sign up here:

So, yeah, I’m just a crazy old nay-sayer who’s going to do it her way and have a great time doing it.

The fantastic part of this is how many readers actually are along for the ride. You people are nuts! But what an extraordinary privilege it is to have readers and that is my benchmark of success. I never expected this and it energizes TF out of me every day.

And besides, it’s so much fun when the almighty editors here deign to tap my forehead with their magic curation wand.

I Keep Forgetting!

When I get a piece curated it’s a total news flash to me

medium.com

Because, let’s be real here, I LOVE it when one of my pieces gets curated. I simply never expect it to translate into buckets of money. I’ll take buckets of readers any day.

Thank you!